Tag: Dipti Mehta

Meet Dipti Mehta & Honour Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan

Name: Dipti Mehta

What is your current project?

Honour Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan

Where are you performing it and why is it the right fit for your piece?

Jersey City Theater Center. We are a part of their Borderless season which is a perfect fit as the show is set in Mumbai, India but touches universal issues like human rights, women’s issues and gender issues.

What’s next for you?

We will be announcing our dates for Hoboken soon and are performing in Washington DC this summer.

Who is your biggest inspiration right at this moment and why?

Amir Khan. His commitment to art and his choice of material is phenomenal. I learn so much from him and his movies. I hope to get to work with him one day.

Want More?

Website: www.honourcmc.com
Twitter: @diptimehta
Instagram : @actordiptimehta

Dipti discovered the power of theater at a young age of 6 in Mumbai, India when she was first cast in a school play, which marked the beginning of her acting career. She was unaware at that young age that she had indeed discovered her calling. She was fortunate to have her own radio shows featured on All India Radio from the young age of 13 eventually leading to a career as a radio jockey and a voice over artist.

According to her, theater is a powerful means to bring social transformation. Desire to make a difference through art is at the core of her projects and is reflected in “HONOUR: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan”.

She is a feminist and an advocate of women’s rights. She has been on interactive anti-sex trafficking panels with FBI agent Mara Schneider, Writer and Social worker, Stuart Perrin, Law professor Gloria Brown Marshal, and groups like ECPAT and AF3IRM.

She believes that art is not distinct from life. It is with this belief she created “HONOUR: CMC”, as an attempt to make a difference in the world.

TV credits include The Blacklist (NBC), Golden Boy (CBS), Deadline Crime with Tamron Hall (Investigation Discovery), One Life to Live, Virrudh, Hum-Tum, and Yoga for you. Film credits include Accommodations, Humor Me, Split, I Dream of Hope, Midnight Delight, Far Away, Penumbra (Cannes Short Film Corner), A box came to Brooklyn, Life! Camera Action (Winner- 11 nominations and 3 awards), A good life, Walkaway, Mamarosh, Red Corvette, Victory, Colors of Passion, and Summer of 2007. Theater credits include Half Hearted (Cherry Lane Theater), Grahan…the Eclipse (Winner – 4 awards), Nishfal (Winner-2 awards), Get Back, Vagina Monologues (Abingdon Theater), Honour (Fringe-NYC, La MaMa & Urban Stages) and Bollywood Wedding.

Dipti works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the field of prostate cancer and owns a holistic skincare company called “Dees Apothecary”. When she is not working on one of her projects she can be found reading on a park bench or cooking for friends and family.

Show information (venue, dates, ticket info)

Sunday, February 26th at 4pm

 

Merseles Studios

339 Newark Ave.
Jersey City, NJ, 07302

Click HERE for tickets.

by Categories: Beyond Broadway, TBB Interviews, TheaterTags: , , Leave a comment

fringeNYC 2016 Recap #3

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Honour: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan by Dipti Mehta; Directed by Mark Cirnigliaro

I recently saw Born into Brothels about on the red light district in the the slums of India and was completely taken aback. I wasn’t surprised that there was prostitution because that would be naive, but there was a part of me that hoped that this issue wouldn’t be a part of my culture. For a culture that created the Kama Sutra and tantric sex, tonight’s performance reminded me that many a girl/woman/matriarch has to be a queen to many kings in one night especially if that is your destiny.

Dipti Mehta bravely writes and performs Honour: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan which tells the story of a young girl, Rani, who dreams of a life beyond the sex industry and her mother who has secured her next station in life for a good price. Mehta seamlessly moves through her characters to  tell us the story through her mother, her father, a pundit, the neighbor, and a pimp (amongst others). In typical Indian fashion, Mehta incorporates traditional and Bollywood dancing as part of the narrative through her many characters.

Though I loved the bilingual aspect, the mix of Hindi and English pulled me out of the show at times. My own Hindi is rudimentary and very basic. Actually, I should just admit I don’t speak Hindi at all. I also yearned for a set to transport us to the “Fuck Lane” so we could grasp a sense of location and poverty.

That being said, I enjoyed the performance and seeing an Indian actress on the stage. I appreciated Mehta bringing attention to the sex industry. To learn more about her efforts with Apne Aap, an international aid organization dedicated to the saving of young girls from sex trade, visit www.apneaap.org.

Show Info:

FRI 8/26 @ 2
SAT 827 @ 5

VENUE #8: WOW Cafe
59-61 East 4th Street, #4
(between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)

Click HERE for more info.

by Categories: Fringe NYC, Reviews, TheaterTags: , , , , Leave a comment